1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for hub-and-spoke navigation and browsing of a website utilizing multiple and repeatable frames and for allowing multiple non-collocated users to collaborate by using secure internet web-browsers to view shared information through an interface created by a server-based application.
2. Background Information
With the growth of the internet and computer technology, there has arisen a need for people to communicate, collaborate, and share information and advice over the internet. From this need have grown many websites and methods for navigating through internet websites. Methods for communicating over the internet have also emerged. Many of these websites and methods inhibit the collaboration by non-collocated users because of the limits they impose on navigation and on the way information is displayed.
A typical website operates using a linear approach to navigation. This means that a user must start at a homepage and then click through headings and subheadings to obtain the desired information. If the user wants to view other information on the website, the user must back out of the current webpage and begin the linear process of clicking headings and subheadings until the new webpage is reached.
On many websites, this process of backing up and going forward is carried out by shortcut keys that allow the user to perform the multiple steps of backing up and going forward by one click of a button. The process, however, remains the same in that the user is taken back, over a new heading, and then forward to the desired page. The end result is the same linear navigation. It is just carried out in response to a single command rather than multiple tedious commands. This process of website navigation is also commonly referred to as “tabbed browsing”, which is discussed in more detail below, and utilizes navigation tabs that remain visible on the web-page.
Many websites are also limited by the type of information that can be accessed on a given page. For example, secure documents are typically stored at a single location that is accessible only by following the linear approach of menu selection—ie., going from heading to subheading, etc. until the secure information is reached. Then to view non-secure information, the user is required to leave the secured webpage and the secured information to follow a path to the non-secure information.
These limitations present a major obstacle to users. Many computer users think in a non-linear format. People will typically address multiple thoughts and ideas at a single time. This process of handling varied information and processing varied information is often referred to as multi-tasking. Additionally, a person might be working with one set of information and be reminded of another task that must be addressed. When using a typical website, a user who is viewing information on the webpage and suddenly decides to address a separate idea or different information must back out of the webpage being viewed and then proceed forward along a different website or application. For example, when using the internet, a user who suddenly decides to send an email must switch between the website being used and the user's email system. The user is faced with the dilemma of either sending the email immediately and possibly losing the information currently being addressed or waiting to send the email until the present task is complete and hope that the user does not forget the email.
Tabbed browsing reflects the industry's attempts to address a user's desire to “multi-task” when using the internet. Tabbed browsing is well known in the art and has been implemented by most internet web browsers, including NetCaptor, IBrowse, Opera, Mozilla, Konqueror, Safari and Internet Explorer. These web browsers utilize a version of tabbed document interface (TDI), which is a graphical user interface that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window and uses tabs for navigation between those documents. As used by these web browsers, TDI allows a user to multi-task and work on several things simultaneously, but in doing so, the user must navigate away from a tab in order to access another tab. The problem is that the user cannot simultaneously view and interact with multiple tabs.
Another problem is that while TDI allows for multiple views in one window, if a user opens up a certain number of tabs that exceeds the available area of the computer monitor, the tabs jumble and the view becomes cluttered. Some web browsers have attempted to deal with this problem by implementing multi-row tabs that can be opened in one window. However, multi-row tabs further complicate the user's viewing experience. Locating a specific tab in a multi-row tabular interface can be difficult for some users and the dialogue created by multiple tabs can be unusually small, which essentially defeats the purpose of multi-tab viewing, i.e., increasing the accessibility of information to the user.
Typical websites are also limited by the applications that they can perform. A typical website will require the user to have applications loaded onto the user's computer before some information or data can be displayed. This requires the user to download, install and run software before the information can be viewed. The demands of storing and running multiple applications have an adverse effect on the user's computer memory and performance. It also prevents a user from using a computer that does not have these applications installed and on which the user does not have authority to install the applications. That is often the case when using publicly available computers, such as in hotels or libraries, to access information over the internet.
Further, email systems, note systems, scheduling systems, to-do and alert programs, and similar programs typically operate on software that is separate from the webpage. In many instances the use of such systems requires the user to have acquired proprietary application software that is in addition to the user's web-browser. This requires a user to leave the web-browser and access the email program or the note-taking program separately. Usually this requires the user to have multiple applications running on the user's computer at a single time and requires the user to constantly toggle between applications such as a web-browser and an email application.
Various attempts have been made to correct the deficiencies of tabbed browsing. Shuping et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,855) discloses a web browsing system that contemporaneously displays in a three-dimensional “web browsing room” three web pages, reflective of a user's current web page, a past web page and a future web page within a single window for the user to view. Rubin et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 7,185,274) teaches a system that maintains a navigation history where the user can navigate along various paths based upon the user's past navigation history. Xu et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,907,574) discloses a system for navigating between hyperlinks on a webpage within a web browser wherein multiple hyperlinks are simultaneously displayed via the web browser.
In addition, a pair of U.S. patents by Rosen (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,922,815 and 6,938,218) have disclosed interfaces for viewing web pages and computer files. Specifically, Rosen '815 discloses a computer-implemented system for organizing web pages and other computer files in a three or four dimensional spatial relationship, where one of the files or web pages is “fixed” in its display. Rosen '218 teaches a geometrical organization of web pages or computer files in a viewable matrix of hypercubes.
While the current art cures some of the deficiencies of tabbed browsing and a user's desire to perform “multi-task” computing, it unfortunately fails to solve the problems in such a novel, useful and unobvious way taught by the present invention.